Daily Times

Chairman Air Sial Fazal Jilani on Saturday said that the local aviation industry must be protected before giving license to foreign airlines to start their operation from Pakistan.

Giving domestic permission to foreign airlines in Pakistan would be disastrous for the industry, he said. Foreign airlines will create problems for the government after initially incurring losses and establishing a monopoly by excluding local airlines from the competition, Chairman Air Sial Fazal Jilani said this while talking to media here. Any investor can be allowed to invest in the country but how Air Arabia and Fly Jinnah got permission, our policy makers don’t think about local investments, he said. Chairman Air Sial Fazal Jilani said that Pakistan has the best pilots in the world, restrictions are imposed due to safety issues, and new pilots should pay more attention to theory and practice.

Education in universities needs to be further improved, he said. He said that unfortunately, the demand for new pilots in our country is very low, but the whole world agrees that our pilots are more professional in their skills than pilots in any other country in the world. Because these short courses are often online, and pilots who have spent their entire life in the same field sometimes avoid these short courses. In response to another question, Chairman Air Sial Fazal Jilani said that there are many challenges for the business community in Pakistan.

He said that Problems are increasing with the excessive taxes, those who do not pay taxes should be brought into the tax net. Responding to a question, he said that production cost has gone up, there is no stability in raw material prices, adding that and increase in prices of petroleum products is observed. Due to the current policies, the entire business community in the country is suffering and there is a lot of frustration in the real estate sector, he said.

He said that in the current situation, no one would be willing to do business in this country. The Chairman said that in this situation People will start shifting their capital abroad, which will have a very negative impact on the country’s economy. The only solution to all these problems is for the government to formulate policies in the interest of the country, he said. He said the atmosphere is not conducive for the business community at the moment and the government should immediately review these policies. He said that the current rise in prices of petroleum products is due to a global crisis, but that the government must lower the taxes in potential sectors.

Therefore, if the government wants economic development and prosperity, then business in this country has to be facilitated. In response to another question, Chairman Air Sial said that his airline will start international operations next month. Air Sial is launching flight operations to UAE, Muscat, Saudi Arabia in the coming month, then “we will also go to Saudi Arabia and Europe, our fleet is growing, our business is moving forward despite difficultconditions.